Keeping it Organized- Our 2016 Homeschool Schedule

Well, here we are! Deep into week two of our year. How's it going? Well... after a first day coffee mishap, a smidgen of humility, and a reality check, I decided to postpone our actual first day.

Apparently things have changed a little more than I thought over the last year and half since we stopped homeschooling. I felt like I really needed a little more time to prepare myself and organize my surroundings and lessons before we jumped back in. I'm glad that I took that time. Things are already better.

We now have a semi organized homeschool office and a pretty good schedule to get us started. This week we're practicing "school days" with the littles. We're working with them on obedience and sitting still for more than 5 minutes. Taylor is reading a ridiculous amount of difficult books. Mary is reviewing her math skills and working on some fun writing assignments. Our theme is still "all about me" and we switched our character study to "obedience" for obvious reasons. Next week we'll move on to our "family" theme and try to stick to our original theme plans from there (as soon as I relocate the missing theme plans, that is).

Anyway...a good schedule is a must for me. We have a very busy and different year ahead of us. With three girls taking classes with The Center for Homeschool Enrichment and Tutorial (Chet), all four girls enrolled in ballet/dance classes, and my husband starting a new job, I need be extremely organized and efficient. There are still plenty of variables and monthly activities that will interfere with the schedule, but at least we have a good solid foundation.

I didn't spend a lot of time on the schedule, I just revised the one from a few years ago. It wasn't possible to include each child's specific routine so I did the best I could. For example, Taylor will spend most of her time at home studying, reading, practicing piano, and completing her assignments. She won't necessarily work in any special order. She's independent and diligent. Mary on the other hand needs constant structure, guidance, and lots of follow-up.

 

I tried to include a few reminders for myself about cooking and cleaning so I won't be flaky. And that's about it.

 

I'm hopeful that Monday will be our official first day and that I'll be able to report back to you all that everything is going great :)  

Sharing Our Plans...... Read All About It!

 

Hi friends!! Since we're all bursting with excitement about the upcoming school year, I thought this would be the perfect time to plan and organize and share.

 

In the past, many of our friends and family have been curious about what the girls were busy doing all day, so I'm going to be sharing our plans each month in a little newsletter like the one below. I'll also try to share what curriculum and classes we've selected for the year, special activities and projects, and how it all ends up working for us. I know that I always enjoy seeing what other families are using and trying. Seeing what works and doesn't work for others has really been helpful to me in planning for my family.

 

I hope that sharing this will be a blessing to those who are planning for their family and also to those who are just interested in how we educate our girls.

 

So here is August's Newsletter :) 



 

Happy Hump Day!!  

A Detour: Part 2 (Brace Yourself.. Haha)

Nearly one full year ago I wrote about life and death and my sorrow and our detour. I knew everyone would be filled with curiosity when we announced our decision to put the big girls in school. Since I have no problem sharing about our life, I figured that would be the best way to do it, and I was totally shocked when I saw how many people read that post! I guess everyone was even more curious than I expected.

I promised a part 2 so here it is. Better late than never!

School? Yes. We put the kids in school. Why? Because I was sad. Because my bad days were about as many as my good days. Because the opportunity kept presenting itself to me. Because I always have, and always will want what's best for my children and my family as a whole. 

So we enrolled them in a local private school. It was fun and we learned a lot. We learned about academics, life, and some important lessons. 

 

It turned out that Taylor (15 at the time) did not have a excellent understanding of Algebra I liked I had hoped. She had taken Algebra I for two years already. One of those years with a tutor. So she took it for a third year. Lesson 1: Do not try to teach math if you stink at math (like me). Beyond that, she was just a little nervous about her skills and a little shy with the other kids at first. It wasn't long before her hard work and many hours of studying, more than paid off, leaving her with all A's and scores over 100 in nearly every subject. Mary's experience was similar with third grade. They both did great. They had great teachers, made great friends and everything was great.

I said at the beginning of the year that some times being a good parent means that you have to make crappy decisions that there's no clear answer for. We decided to go to school because that was the decision that I felt was best at that time. I'm not the person that says, if they could go back they'd change stuff. I would never go back and I would never change anything. At least this way, I know what my problems are. If I were to go back and do things differently, I'd have different problems. Maybe bigger problems. So in short, school was fun but it's not for us.

We are officially homeschooling again!! I'm not going to get into every reason why we love homeschooling or the reasons why we'd rather homeschool than attend private or public school. 

School reminded us about some of the great things that come along with a structured classroom setting and I hope to implement those things into our school days at home. Lesson 2: Structure, morning work, repetition, classes, friends, and socialization are our friends :)

Lesson 3: There is no replacement for our family time together. I could go on and on about family time but I'll spare you in this post.

When we were homeschooling, we never woke up wondering if we were making the right choice. And I haven't wondered about it once since we made the choice to do it again.
 

It's Friday! SO How About a Cookie Recipe!

 

This school lunch business is really making me crazy. I don't mind them eating sandwiches and chips (that's what they ate many days homeschooling) but I can't handle or afford the little prepackaged snacks.

 

I'll admit it, I bought some. I was overwhelmed (like most parents) this first week and I caved. I didn't really feel bad about it either. But into the second week, as we were running out of lunch food, I felt like I could do better. Mary said that one kid had cookies and another had fudge rounds and a list of other things that I don't buy regularly.

 

I get it. They want sweets and junk food. So do I.

 

My last couple of batches of healthy sweet stuff haven't been very tasty so I needed to try something less drastic. My theory on food is "make good choices when you can, anything is better than nothing". So I made a batch of semi healthy chocolate chip cookies. They are no doubt better than pre-packaged desserts and they actually tasted really good. Yes, I ate three of them :(

 

Here's my recipe! Use what you have. Pretty much every ingredient is organic so I'll spare you and not put organic in front of everything.

 

Semi Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

1/2 cup shortening of your choice

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sucanat

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

 

 

Mix ingredients in order of recipe with an electric mixer. Then stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

 

 

Roll or drop (I did both and they both worked) onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 60.



 

 

Paisley approved!

 

 

 

Have a Super Happy Friday!!!!

 

 

 

School Week Update & Babies Gone Wild

I know lots of people are wondering how school is really going for the girls this week. So here's a day by day update :)

 

On the first day, we were all pumped up and ready to rock! I was prepared with breakfast burritos, lunches made early, and everything was packed and/or laid out the night before. Taylor (15) woke up at 4:45 to shower and have a relaxing morning and Mary was dressed and ready almost an hour before it was time to leave. Later we noticed from pics on her teacher's blog that she was the only kid in her class with a light blue shirt on. Everyone else had navy blue. I still don't know why. Gran came to watch the babies so it was easy peasy for me!

 

After school, they were filled with smiles and happy stories. No first day homework so we opened presents, went swimming and had cake to celebrate Mary's 8th birthday.

 

 

I can't even remember what time they finally fell asleep but I'm sure it was too late. 

 

 

Day 2 wasn't quite as smooth. It wasn't bad but I didn't feel nearly as confident in my ability to get everyone a healthy breakfast and to school on time. I served cereal and did my best to pull myself together but on the way to school I realized my wet hair that I put up after my shower hadn't even been brushed! Not cool!! Getting the babies up and loaded in the truck probably didn't help anything. And they were NOT ready to get up!

 

 

 

After school  Mary was beat!

 

 

I had some stuff to drop off at a local consignment sale. Yeah I have a problem with Christmas clothes. I probably need help.

 

 

She was grouchy and exhausted. She did her homework and laid around. We laughed at her. A lot.

 

 

Bedtime time is unknown :/

 

 

Day 3 was somewhere between day 1 and day 2 but with more homework and some after school errands.  And church. I was more prepared but more tired too. I did manage to make breakfast for my honey before he left, which I've been acting like I'm going to do everyday :)

 

 

I'll tell you what I don't love is missing out on my relaxing quiet cup (or three) of morning coffee. I don't even have time to sit down.

 

Note to self: must work on squeezing in relaxing quiet cup of coffee.

 

Mary's bedtime was better. Taylor stayed up after church to do homework. I went to bed before she did is all I know.

 

 

Day 4. Forgot to wash Mary's shirts. Whoops :/ I don't even know how that happened but 5 am laundry is not fun. I have more shirts but they're being monogrammed. Another word to describe day 5 is "rainy".

 

The babies and I are enjoying the days together. It's like an episode of "babies gone wild" in here though. They're pretty much living in bathing suits and the living room has been a tent or fort every single day this week. You may need a visual so here you go.

 

 

 

 

I personally am enjoying nap time the most.

 

 

I can see great house cleaning progress in my future! I also have a million projects to finish and another list of projects to start.

 

All in all, the week is going well. Everyone seems happy, and tired, and there's nothing wrong with that!

 

 

 

Hello August, School, and a Birthday!

For everyone who's waiting on Part 2 of Our Detour, this is not it. This is an "oh my goodness, I can't believe the girls are going to school!" post. Oh my goodness. Not only can I not believe that I've put them in school, I can not believe that their first day is already here!

 

We did the half day/registration day last week and everything went well. Registration day pictures :)

 

 

 

Mary's classroom and teacher are awesome. She was excited to meet new friends and is looking forward to the third grade adventure! Her classroom theme is The Third Grade Explorers. Mary was definitely born to explore!

 

 Taylor said that she felt very welcomed by her new classmates and teachers. Everyone was super friendly and helpful. We were sent home with a mountain of papers and forms and the usual beginning of the year fundraiser stuff. I'm sure some parents are annoyed with the mountain but I'm not. I get it. After being the PTO president at Taylor's elementary school years ago, followed by 5 years of homeschooling, I can totally understand the amount of time, money, effort, and papers! it takes to run a successful school. 

 

 

We made a quick (not-so-quick) run to fill up on school supplies and we were READY! Except that three of our notebooks were wrong, we forgot the antibacterial wipes, and we couldn't decide if the mixed media paper would work for canvas paper. But eventually we got it all worked out, after two more trips to the store ;)

 

So... on to the birthday part of the first day of school. Yes, the first day of third grade was also Mary's 8th birthday! Craziness!! So what do you do when your child is super nervous about her first day/birthday? You bake something fun, I guess.

 

Here's my version of unhealthy birthday cookie sandwiches.

 

1 box of funfetti cake mix

1/2 cup butter

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

Lots of sprinkles

Mini m&ms

Mini chocolate chips

 

Mix all of that together and chill for about 10 minutes.

 

 

Roll into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

 

 

Cool.

 

 

Admire the awesomeness (forgive my phone pics)

 

 

Bandage a boo-boo and wash hands.

 

 

Spread on some vanilla marshmallow frosting (store bought) and smush together. Roll edges in sprinkles.

 

*As I admired these lovely cookie sandwiches I realized something. Sending these extremely gooey sugar sandwiches in, for third graders to attempt to eat at lunch on the first day of school may not be the best idea.

 

So.... back to the drawing board (or kitchen).

 

 

Truffles!

 

 

I made truffles for the class to enjoy at lunch. The gooey cookie sandwiches were sent home with each kid as a treat. Double the fun, right!

 

 

 

It took some time to organize and then reorganize but I think we got everything where it needed to be.

 

 

Since Mary's teacher Mrs. B's theme for the year is The Third Grade Explorers, I decided that I just had to make her a canvas for her classroom! I hope she loves it!

 

Happy Back to School Kiddies!